Messages

1

General Mach Discussion / Safe Z question

« on: February 13, 2020, 09:34:05 PM »

I *think* this is a Safe Z question.  Its probably covered somewhere here in the half-million posts but I'm in my 60's so time is precious.

I zero my machine,  Mach 3, Chines router.
I move the X and/or Y and lower the Z to zero it on the materiel surface.
I press the GOTO ZERO button, and the machine drags the tool accross my materiel without raising the Z accecc like it once did.
I have checked the box under "Safe Z"  but whatever I did 8 years ago doesnt work anymore. (I had to replace the hard drive and reinstall everything from scratch recently).

Is there another box to xheck that i'm not seeing?

I wasnt the machine to , as it once did, raise the tool 1" before moving X or Y.

Thanks for your help!

2

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach 3 R3.043.066 and Windows 7 problems.

« on: December 09, 2014, 02:29:08 PM »

Oh, and its running XP SP2.
Windows 7 simply wouldn't work.  I'm a patient man. i gave it a YEAR.  

Running in Admin? - JOKE.
Setting to SP2 Compatibility mode?  - HAR HAR
Trying every other fix suggested here?  -  A mockery of my every hope.

I finally gave up and went back to XP, which is still out there, hiding in the bushes.  Its awesome.
The good news is I bough that computer for 100 bucks.    I recommend doing the same, since that all that worked for me.

I DO appreciate the suggestions and trys at helping.   Good ole' Art needs to do something to make this less of an issue.

3

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach 3 R3.043.066 and Windows 7 problems.

« on: December 09, 2014, 02:26:51 PM »

Hey, I'm happy to report the problem is fixed...

I found a guy who sells computers.  Old ones.  I had him build a machine straight out of 2003.  IDE drives, Lots of memory, and a SEPARATE video card.

Mind you, I dont mean I disabled some on-board video system and installed a peripheral video card.  I mean this mother board had no video whatsoever.  The kind of video card appears to be irrelevant, so long as it isn't supplied on the motherboard.  I can only assume this has something to do with the way PC hardware interrupts work...  Every one of the 5 PC's I tried first had integrated video.  The users Guide says it wont work, but who reads instructions?

The motors can run faster now than I've ever seen.  Apparently the PC that died on me wasn't that great of a machine in the first place.  The USB stepper controller is a bit better than the J-CUT one (I'm now using as a spacer under an unsteady shop table).

4

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach3 support for windows 7?

« on: August 25, 2014, 01:21:08 PM »

Where do you find a PC new enough to run Windows 7, but old enough to have a parallel port?

Is there an Idiot's guide to setting up Windows 7 to run with a USB controller?

5

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach 3 R3.043.066 and Windows 7 problems.

« on: August 25, 2014, 12:29:32 PM »

Sorry

XBm was supposed to say XP

6

Mach3 under Vista / Re: Mach 3 R3.043.066 and Windows 7 problems.

« on: August 25, 2014, 12:28:45 PM »

Windows 7 is killing me.  My machine has been down for months, as I cant find a reliable set up under Win 7, 32 bit with A COUPLE of USB controllers.  None work correctly.  The PC motherboard dies about the same time they stopped supporting XBm so I bought 500 bucks worth of new computer, put a legal copy ov Win 1, 32 bit on it, and life sucks.

I have set it all up to run as admin. Ive turned off everything under Windows I dont need. Its in XP compatibility mode, SP2.

I CAN get my Chinese JCUT 6090 to move X,Y and Z okay (slowly), but pulse timing is a mess, and the spindle TURNS ON AND OFF WITHOUT COMMANDS TO DO SO.  I can observe the PWM output on my controller board going high on my oscilloscope. Its not entirely random, its trying to respond to keyboard input, but obviously the USB port is being tampered with by the OS.

This is obviously dangerous and unacceptable.  I REALLY needs some help here.

Anyone know the magic words to make this mess work safely?
Why dont the good folks at Newfangled answer emails about Windows 7?

7

Mach3 under Vista / Re: No problem solving for mach3 - windows 7 64 bit?

« on: November 19, 2013, 10:30:05 AM »

So how are people using Smooth Stepper with Windows 7?
The docs say it only works with 2000, xp and Vista.

Oh, before I forget, Thanks for screwing us all, Micro$oft!

8

General Mach Discussion / Re: JNC-40M controller and Windows 7 - Anyone get this to work?

« on: November 18, 2013, 05:29:33 PM »

Hello,
Does anyone know if the JNC-40M controller installs/works with Windows 7?

My CNC computer died, which was a bare-bones XP, and I ended up with a nice Windows 7 (32 bit) system and everything appears to install nicely.  Upon starting up Mach 3, I get a message saying "Plugin DLL defective. Reload".  A second message then comes up saying its ignoring the error and misspells the word ignoring.   There are no resources I can find online that offer new drivers or even any real information on the old one.  There is a manual of sorts but.. eeesh. 

This is obviously coming from the JNC-40M software.  I cant find it in the device driver tree.  Also,  if I remove it the software, Mach 3 wont finish loading to its home screen (just a white windows panel). 

Anyway, I've reinstalled everything in the prescribed order. It looks like the driver for this board isnt compatible with Win 7?  Is that true?   Then what?
I dont wish to use the parallel port BOB.

Thanks

9

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: Noobie here, thanks in advance for the nice RTFM

« on: November 02, 2011, 08:31:30 PM »

Well balls on a rubber chicken.

I found the Manual. Its buried under the 1/3 point font links of example dxf files.   And its looks very concise and well illustrated. (guys like me need pictures, so thank you for your contribution!).

Being a dyslexic I have some cool savant qualities.  It takes me all day to read a paragraph to where I understand it but if given a chance to visualize something, my brain OWNS it.    Thats why I got into programming AND specializing in user interfaces.   If they would only let me reprogram the traffic lights in my town. Stuff would get DONE *S*

So how do we get LazyCam to go GNU?  Open source?  Someone send me the source and I'll group the menus in an intuitive way.  I'll excerpt your manual (with your written permission)  into an on-board help system.  The world needs this.   Hobbyists are coming online EVERY day.  I'm one of them.

This software apparently does EVERYTHING it needs to do... whats missing?   (obviously it should stream ********* from Swedish television stations, but thats a feature one would probably have to pay for)....

10

LazyCam (Beta) / Re: Noobie here, thanks in advance for the nice RTFM

« on: November 02, 2011, 08:10:19 PM »

Once again, a fine job done on the doc. Rich.

The following cannot be stressed enough.
So I embellished it a bit.


 
 
 
There are no shortcuts. If you take the time to look at the manual you will know how to use LC and probably pick up some experience. Not looking at  the manual
and using it is like having never driven a HELICOPTER before and you turn the key and decide to take a ride to the store during a THUNDERSTORM wearing a BLINDFOLD.

 
 

You act like you never did that before either. We've all been there.